I really like James Hoffman's suggestion of a hot bloom and will have to try it. (And I find his tone gracious, actually, encouraging people to brew a better cup at their favored roast level or the roast level that is available to them.)

This is slightly off topic for the video, but it has been mentioned enough in the thread that I want to comment. I usually don't go to second crack but my darkest roasts spend 10 seconds there before I drop them. Mr. Hoffman is discussing coffees with some oil sheen on the surface, and that's the most I'll get with a brief second crack. I like to brew those coffees cooler, often at 178°F / 81°C, within the range he mentions. At that temperature they taste sweet and chocolatey and when roasted well, they retain other complex flavors, like distillates (such as rum), ripe blackberries, earthiness, peppery spice, etc. Depending on the coffee and brew method, I may brew it hotter -- which brings me back to trying his hot bloom suggestion. These coffees are lovely to drink without cream and sugar, but with more intense coffees they may be perfect for a milk drink. The aim is to bring the best out of that particular coffee rather than be chained to a trend. Last night I served an immersion Clever Dripper brew of Bali decaf roasted briefly into second crack to friends after dinner. I had updosed it a little. One of them was stunned that it wasn't bitter and asked me how to brew coffee that way. He will most likely follow up. I typically use that coffee for my wife's morning cappuccino. Last week I served an AeroPress of that coffee to a friend, whose response was "yum!" At the same time we sampled a coffee roasted to a similar level earlier that day and brewed in an ibrik, then filtered. I had settled on the practice recommended by Mr. Hoffman, which is to filter the coffee through paper. Different from Mr. Hoffman's suggestion of a coarse grind in this instance, an almost powdered roast with very fresh coffee in an ibrik works very well. My friends also loved to taste that one black. I am always roasting specialty grade coffee, and these are only decafs when serving my wife or drinking coffee late in the day. I am not alone in liking this roast level in my rotation.

A review of our coffees and roasting forums will find renewed interest in dark roasts as worth exploring. I like the method of aiming for a declining rate of rise of bean temperature into first crack but then departing from that Scott Rao method to crank on more heat, develop the outside of the coffee into second crack and retain roast level flavors in the interior.

For roasting and brewing, these approaches are not very different from enjoying a Paul Prudhomme recipe of Cajun prime rib, where the interior of the meat is medium rare, moving outward to medium and still juicy, with a barbecued herb and pepper crust.